Genre: Shooter, Real Time Strategy (RTS), Strategy, Indie
Natural Selection 2
UPDATE 329 - ORIGIN
Welcome back to “Colony Zero,” the forgotten mining facility on the moon Freya IV. Greed and a continued push for dominance brought the TSF to this moon, but what they found while mining deep was something they felt was far more valuable than ore or minerals; little did they know it would start a pandemic reaching across the entire galaxy.
Our newest official map, ORIGIN, a remake of the NS1 map, holds the answers to the Origins of Kharaa and is now available to play. You can earn the special Abyss Gorge skin after playing five rounds, but hurry as this skin is only available for a limited time! Thank you to pSyk for all his hard work on re-creating this classic map and to our map testing crew for all of their time reviewing and assisting on the map.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC7q_eterMY
Update 329 also brings another set of balance changes aimed at creating more variation of play and strategy. A new menu system has been designed and built for a better player customizing experience and allows for easier implementation of future features to come. We have officially moved to DirectX 11 and added support for Temporal Anti-Aliasing, both of which can help produce better quality of play and visual upgrades to your game. Additional changes to other official maps have also been added to support better gameplay and help new players learn the maps.
A reminder that with the release of 329 we have officially dropped support for the Linux client of NS2. We will continue to support and update the Linux Dedicated Server. For those using the Linux client, you can still play NS2 via the Steam Play compatibility tools (Proton). Proton is still in Beta and being actively developed so there may be some features or functions that do not work. We have confirmed that playing the game while connecting to a dedicated server does work and in some cases the performance is much improved from the Linux client.
Check out the full changelog on the blog to see all the goodies contained within.
Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
NS2 Open Tournament
Our friends at the Natural Selection League are hosting a one-weekend, no holds barred clash of some of the best players and teams in this Open Tournament!
Saturday and Sunday (the 29th and 30th) at 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT / 16:00 GMT / 18:00 CEST
NS2 Open Tournament
Our friends at the Natural Selection League are hosting a one-weekend, no holds barred clash of some of the best players and teams in this Open Tournament!
Saturday and Sunday (the 29th and 30th) at 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EDT / 16:00 GMT / 18:00 CEST
Update 328 Released!
Update 328 includes an upgrade to Visual Studio 2017 runtime, continued balance tweaks in response to the last update, updates to DirectX 11 (getting us closer to ditching DirectX 9 altogether) and numerous fixes and optimizations throughout the game. We are making great strides in achieving our goal on the roadmap and 329 is looking to be another great update, so stay tuned for public tests in advance of release. Lastly we want to thank all of you that have been purchasing DLC and all the newcomers that have been buying the game over the last few months. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Note to all Windows users: You will need to ensure the 2017 Visual C++ redistributes are installed on your system! Otherwise the game won’t start after the update. Steam should take care of this during the update process but is known to fail sometimes.
Changelog
Gameplay
Mergedbalance changes we released live 3 weeks ago via our extensions mod
Optimizations
Tweaks / Improvements
Fixes
Sounds
Maps
Tools
SDK
Known Issues
NSL Community Challenge LiveStream & UWE Public Playtest
Itching for some NS2 this weekend?
Community Challenge
Check out the epic bash that is the Community Challenge! In this event hosted by our friends at the Natural Selection League, it's community VS community as different servers prepare for battle to compete for the crown of Community Champion! This is a two day tournament held on the 15th & 16th of June, starting at 8 PDT / 11 EDT / 15 GMT / 17 CEST
You can catch streams of this event on the following Twitch Channels: NaturalSelection2 (Starting 1 hour from this post) NSLTV (The stream should be starting in a few minutes!)
Natural Selection 2 Public Playtest
This Saturday , (June 15th at 13:00 PDT / 22:00 CEST - or 5 hours from this post) We will have a public playtest of build 328!!
This patch is focused primarily on client and server performance improvements, and as such we think its a good idea to ensure others do not experience anything broken, and that we can adequately stress test our server.
All are invited to join us to play some rounds / break things, ensure the build is stable and provide any additional feedback!
Join our General Voice Channel in this discord to coordinate with us and feel free to show up a few minutes early to ensure you get a chance to play or ask questions. We will give out the server password over voice the moment we begin. It will be on the publicly available Beta branch on our NAPT server.
NSL NEWCOMER TOURNAMENT
Unknown Worlds would like to invite you to watch or sign up to play the NEWCOMER TOURNAMENT, an event hosted by our friends at Natural Selection League.
WHEN IS THE NEWCOMER TOURNAMENT?
The tournament will be played on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2.
Saturday (Group Stage): Start: 19 CEST / 17 GMT / 1 PM EDT At most 3 matches, with 4 rounds each All games, if not finished earlier, will end at 00:00 CEST / 6:00 PM EDT
Sunday (Finals): Start: 19 CEST / 17 GMT / 1 PM EDT Half-Finals and Finals, played in a best of 5 format
⦿ Do I need a complete team? No, you don’t! Everyone can register. It doesn’t matter if you register only yourself, with a few friends or a complete team.
⦿ Who can register? All players who have not played in any of the NSL seasons can participate.
⦿ Where do I register? Registration is run by the NSL Homepage homepage. This video explains the process. It is also the page where you can find teams, players, and your results.
Also please fill out this form if you wish to participate to make it easier for captains to sort out teams!
What has build 327 Unearthed? A lot actually! This new update to NS2 includes a new map, changes to existing maps, new skins, new models, new sounds and new gameplay and balance changes. All told the changelog for build 327 came to be 10+ pages once we included everything. There is so much in this update to sink your teeth into, read ahead for all the details or just jump in game and figure out all the changes in battle. People playing on the new map Unearthed will receive a new alien commander skin and if you like that you might also check out our Catalyst DLC Pack, which has many other skins and now includes a new Sandstorm skin for the updated machine gun model. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
Click here to see the full changelog and all the goodies contained within. Follow the NS2 Development Roadmap to see our plans for future updates.
Update 326 includes crash fixes, changes to quickplay, spectate updates, bug fixes, and new cosmetics to the Catalyst Pack. In honor of Gorgemas, everyone who has purchased the Catalyst Pack DLC will receive new gorge toxin skins for all the gorge structures. If you don’t own the Catalyst Pack, you can still purchase it and unlock all the DLC skin packs included. Remember all sales of NS2 and DLC directly affect our development budget and allow our team to continue work on NS2.
From all of us at Unknown Worlds, we wish you the happiest of holidays and Merry Gorgemas!
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
Follow the NS2 development roadmap to see our plans for future updates.
Changelog
Tweaks / Improvements
Fixes
Maps
Kodiak
Eclipse Menu
Tools
SDK
Known Issues
UWE Group Resurrection
This Steam Community group has been neglected. For eight years, we forgot it existed. Before this post, the last update was from Flayra in January 2010, offering Natural Selection 2 pre-orders! It's time to bring it back to life.
Back in 2010, Subnautica wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye. NS2 hadn't topped Steam on Halloween. People were using iPhone 3's. Windows 7 was only a few months old. This is a vintage Steam Community, and resurrecting it is an opportunity for reflection.
Since 2010, Unknown Worlds has been through a lot. We've navigated near-death financial valleys to the heady heights of #1 top-seller on Steam. Our team size has grown from around 10 to around 40. We've gotten a little older, a little wiser, and formed firm friendships as a team.
Your engagement with the development process is the critical secret sauce. Without all of you, our games would probably suck.
To everyone that has followed us since 2010, and before, and to everyone that is with us now, and to those thinking of joining us in future, thank you. We're pumped to keep making great games with you.
Update 325 includes balance adjustments, map refinements, bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and new cosmetics to the Catalyst Pack. A long time veteran of NS2 development has rejoined the team, Fsfod is back and putting all his focus on improving and stabilizing LuaJIT. Fsfod was the original developer that implemented LuaJIT support for NS2. His efforts will ultimately yield a faster and more stable game.
The Machine Gun is getting some needed love this update. The Commander is no longer required to research it separately after upgrading to an Advanced Armory and we have lowered the cost of the Commander weapon drop as well. Additionally, with a lower overall weight and slight increase to the base damage, this is starting to feel like a better weapon choice to have in a group of Marines later in the round.
Sound is a critical component of NS2 gameplay. Hearing the clatter of claws on metal can mean the difference between life and death. Our resident audiophile Sweets has prepared an overhaul of audio cues, from footstep distances to Gorge Tunnel sounds over the last few patches and now has taken a peck at the Lerk glide and ambient sounds for additional player tracking.
Last update we introduced the Catalyst Pack, new Sandstorm skins for all Marine equipment, and Toxin skins for all Alien lifeforms. This update we are adding to that DLC, Catalyst now gives the Command Station and Hive the cosmetic DLC love they’ve always deserved. This update also includes cosmetic options for Alien Eggs and Harvesters as well as Marine Extractors.
*Proceeds from the sale of all NS2 DLC items, including this new Catalyst Pack, go towards funding the on-going and long-term development of NS2.
Since this is Halloween, we have added our first ever animated shoulder badge. This spooky new babbler badge will unlock after completing just five rounds of play that are at least five minutes long.
Check out the full changelog below to see all the goodies contained within.
